Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 22

Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 22

Without too many stand out performances on Saturday most fantasy managers ambled into Sunday with distinctly average scores. And then along came Alexis Sanchez to single-handedly make or break many a week. Those that owned him were just thankful they did, those that captained him saw their scores jump by a massive 38 points. Those that did neither…. well, we shall probably see them at the back end of the week sometime once the shock and tears have worn off. Game-week 22 is now upon us and it is worth pointing out that there is then a break as the FA Cup 4th round is in-between GW’s 22 and 23. Those of you who still have their January wildcard intact may want to consider carefully the advantages of keeping it with such a big break between those game-weeks what with so many games being played and the January transfer window drawing towards it’s conclusion (the deadline is actually Monday 2nd Feb at 11pm). Onto the fixtures themselves this is our weekly look at which teams we feel have the best run ahead of them and which teams are probably best avoided for a while…

January Wildcard
As we have alluded to it is now active but just to clarify the rules –

– Any transfers or hits you incur in any given week will be wiped out if you play your WC in the same week.

– You can play it whenever prior to GW24 and it’ll be active for the start of GW’s 22, 23 or 24. It’s available now and can be deployed for any week up until GW24 but not after that. Use it or lose it basically.

– It does not impact on your ‘season long’ wildcard, that will still be available if you haven’t played it yet.

All basic stuff but worth going over we feel.

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Just before we examine the fixtures ahead, here is a reminder of a couple of essential Fantasy Football tools that you may wish to refer back to.

Mito produced some outstanding and detailed analysis on the best rotation pairs for the season which can be found here –
Rotation Analysis Home and Away and Favourable fixtures

Calvin Clyne devised an ingenious interactive fixture tracker which can be found here –
Fixture Tracker – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15

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And so onto the teams and fixtures themselves. Let’s begin with a very straightforward fixture tracker…

We have colour coded the fixtures in a simple fashion to allow you to judge your transfer and team selection plans accordingly:

[highlight_green]Green[/highlight_green] – We deem these to be winnable fixtures for the given team and should, in theory at least (!), harvest good fantasy points for you in the opening games. Aim to have a good nucleus of these players in your squad.

[highlight_yellow]Yellow[/highlight_yellow] – These are the fixtures that could go either way and do not stand out as being either particularly good or poor. If you have a player from a team in this category then do not be afraid to play them but take a considered view that it may or may not not be an explosive week for them.

[highlight_red]Red[/highlight_red]- These are the teams that we consider to have a difficult fixture and as such may be best avoided from a fantasy perspective. Aim to minimise any players that have a run of reds in the opening games.

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FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Southampton – Newcastle (a), Swansea (h), QPR (a)
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[/three_fourth]All back on the Southampton train! It was rather full at one point early in the season as they swept all comers aside but then they hit a rocky patch and riders were seen jumping from the carriages with reckless abandon. They were right to do so as well as the rough patch proved to be just that but they’ve weathered the storm and come back strong. Slowly but surely the jumpers are dusting themselves down and clambering back on board as they have now won four of their last five and even the only blip in that sequence was a draw against leaders Chelsea. The jewel in the crown was of course the win at Old Trafford which suggested solidity at the back and will see many bringing in the likes of Clyne and Bertrand once more. Alderweireld was the poor mans choice given his price tag but unfortunately big Toby succumbed to an injury at Utd and missed out on the clean sheet fun.

Two of the next three are away from home but that clean sheet at Old Trafford would suggest that trips to Newcastle and QPR probably won’t deter many from investing in what is after all the tightest defence in the league by some way. Just the 15 goals conceded so far and only 8 on the road which is actually half as many as league leaders Chelsea have conceded. Just the 11 goals scored away though does suggest that they deliberately set up to keep it tight away from home and try to nick the odd goal. Double Southampton defence anyone?! Their home game is Swansea and they are actually much more attack minded at St Mary’s with 24 goals scored which puts them joint best in the league alongside Chelsea. When you are mirroring or indeed bettering Chelsea on so many important stats you know you are doing something right!

Pelle and Tadic were the early season darlings of many a fantasy team and it was this pair that combined for the winner at Old Trafford although scorer Tadic had to do it from the bench. Having missed a couple of games over Christmas Tadic has played just 169 minutes since GW19 but has managed two goals and an assist for 23 points in those three games which may suggest he is getting back to his earlier season consistency which saw him grab seven assists and a goal in the first eight weeks. At £7.7m he could tempt a few as they look to shave off some pennies from their midfield in order to afford Aguero at some point soon. Pelle has been quieter as of late and much like Tadic did most of his work prior to GW9 scoring six of his eight goals in that period but at just £7.9m the fixtures ahead may tempt some back onboard.

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Chelsea – Swansea (a), Man City (h), Aston Villa (a)
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[/three_fourth]We expected that the Spurs defeat was just a blip and that Jose and co would bounce straight back and they did just that with a routine 2-0 victory over a managerless Newcastle with goals from Oscar and Costa. In fact it was Oscar that stole the show with the assist for the Costa goal and all three bonus points meaning that for once he put his more illustrious midfield colleagues Fabregas and Hazard in the shadows with a 13 point haul compared to their three apiece. Many saw this fixture as a great chance for a Chelsea clean sheet but despite them duly delivering just that it may have been a frustrating experience for many as Cahill missed out altogether and Azpilicueta came off injured after 36 minutes which allowed Felipe Luis on for 54 minutes meaning neither was around long enough to actually claim the clean sheet. Kurt Zouma deputised for Cahill but this isn’t a situation we would expect to see continue and this was probably just Cahill’s ‘Christmas rest’ that Jose had promised he would give to most of his players at some point. Date check please Jose, it’s finished.

As for their upcoming schedule they have two away games at Swansea and Villa that shouldn’t really cause them any problems. Chelsea have scored the second most away goals with 22 while Swansea and Villa have scored 23 at home – between them. The City game is a crunch one at the top end of the table and obviously the most difficult of the three but Chelsea have won all 10 games at The Bridge so far. The fact that Chelsea have scored the joint most home goals and City the most away goals suggests this one probably won’t be 0-0!

Beyond those three games Chelsea host Everton and Burnley as well as having a trip to lowly Leicester so it’s fair to say that you can invest in them with confidence for quite some time yet. Just a quick word on leading goal scorer Diego Costa. That was his 15th league goal in 18 games which is about as consistent as you can get. To highlight many fantasy managers frustrations with him though that was the second game in a row that he has scored and failed to pick up any bonus points which is actually the 6th time this season that has happened to him. We are beginning to suspect that someone at FPL HQ hasn’t got him in their fantasy team! On a plus note he’s not been booked now in the last five games. We know, it won’t last.

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Man Utd – QPR (a), Leicester (h), West Ham (a)
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[/three_fourth]United’s 10 game unbeaten league run came to an abrupt halt at the hands of a resolute Southampton team who hadn’t won at Old Trafford in 27 years. The fact that Utd didn’t register a single shot on target may seem alarming but it wasn’t as if they didn’t have chances with Juan Mata perhaps being as guilty as any missing a few good opportunities and one sitter from six yards out in particular. Radamel Falcao’s complete absence from the match day squad and subsequent reports of him storming out as a result will have his owners concerned to say the least. Logic dictated that Rooney would therefore pair up with RvP in attack but it was in fact Angel Di Maria who took up that role and such was his impact that he was substituted with 20 minutes left as Utd chased the game to no avail. Van Persie himself went off after 60 minutes amid reports of a suspected ankle injury.

Now all that sounds a bit doom and gloom but fear not as United’s fixtures are fairly kind to them starting with games against the bottom two clubs. Utd go to QPR then host Leicester. QPR have faltered as of late and despite their home form supposedly being their bedrock the fact is they’ve still not won more games at home than they have actually won (6 to 5) and they even managed to lose there 0-3 in the FA Cup to lower league Sheffield United. Leicester famously handed Utd a pasting in the corresponding fixture but their season has been all down hill from there whereas Utd’s actually picked up after it. The third game is by far and away the trickiest as they go to an in-form West Ham.

Beyond those three United’s fixtures continue to look on the up as they face Burnley and Sunderland at home where they are particularly strong (8 wins out of 11) as well as a trip to Swansea. United have the 4th best defensive record and the 5th best attacking one in the league so we wouldn’t be adverse to investing at either end of the pitch with this fixture schedule.

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LESS FAVOURABLE FIXTURES

Aston Villa – Liverpool (h), Arsenal (a), Chelsea (h)
Villa are without a win in their last 6 league games and in fact it’s 5 games since they actually scored a goal. To take that a step further they’ve managed to score just 11 goals all season. Quite how they are sat in 13th place and not actually propping up the league with that abysmal return is anybody’s guess! That they aren’t is probably down to their defence because they actually have the best defensive record outside of the top 3. The moral to this story is if your team is playing Villa save yourself the hard earned money and just watch the inevitable stalemate as the last game on Match of the Day.

We would stay away from them for the next three games at least as they host both Liverpool and Chelsea and face a trip to the Emirates. If nothing else then that defensive record should come under some severe scrutiny, especially in the latter two of those fixtures.

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Hull West Ham (a), Newcastle (h), Man City (a)
A disappointing and typically limp display from Hull saw them lose at 1-0 to West Brom and slump back into the bottom three, just two points ahead of bottom club Leicester. To make matters worse they were forced to play with Robbie Brady and Tom Ince as emergency strikers for a good portion of that game as both Jelavic and Hernandez went off injured in the first half with knee and groin issues. Already having the joint 4th worst attacking record in the league the loss of those two will not help their cause at all.

They face two very tricky trips to West Ham and Man City in the next three and you wouldn’t be surprised if they comfortably lost both of those. The only respite for them is that home game with managerless Newcastle but even by then the Toon may have a new chief and a renewed enthusiasm. There really isn’t much to recommend from a Hull point of view then at either end of the pitch. It’s possibly worth pointing out that they don’t concede heavily but they do concede consistently with just the two clean sheets in their last 13 games in all competitions.

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QPR – Man Utd (h), Stoke (a), Southampton (h)
Just below Hull in the table are QPR who are now without a win in their last five games in all competitions. The 2-1 defeat at Burnley was their tenth consecutive away defeat so that trip to Stoke doesn’t look particularly enticing. They are stronger at home but unfortunately the next two games at Loftus Road see the visit of the 3rd and 4th placed teams in Southampton and Man Utd.

Having had a hand in 16 of QPR’s 23 goals this season (nearly 70%) there really is only one player to consider from their ranks as Charlie Austin seems to be on a one man mission to save them from the drop. Not only did he score the penalty on Saturday, he won it himself, which just about sums up him and QPR at the moment. He has now overtaken Aguero and Costa as the games leading forward points scorer with 107 in total. It’s not very often a player from a team in 19th place can boast that! Owned by over 28% of managers, he is still great value at just £6.4m but many will have to take a considered view if they are wildcarding this week given QPR’s fixtures ahead.

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Fixture Fun
There are FA Cup replays this week and so you will need to keep an eye on the following teams who are in action for any resultant injury or suspension news –

Tuesday
West Ham
Everton

Wednesday
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
Burnley

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Thanks for reading Fantasy Football Fixtures Gameweek 22 – Fantasy Premier League 2014-15. This article was written by Inittowinit

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